MONTHLY CHALLENGES
This month’s and all past Challenge images can be seen at Amersham Beyond Group on Flickr.
For APS Members only, the images are also available for viewing and commenting on Facebook here.
The current Challenges are;
#42 FILM NOIR
#43 OIL & WATER
… and the latest Challenge,
#44 BLENDING MODES
Some of the group were experimenting with blending modes for the first time. Everyone seemed to be doing this using a photo editor but alternatives are available from apps and in-camera as mentioned last month. My tip with blending mode experimentation is to keep two or three adjustment layers open above the layers being blended; adjusting Levels (or Curves) and Invert plus experimentation with Opacity can make a blend come to life. Also don’t forget to experiment with multiple layers using different blends. You can never be sure what you will get! See last months notes for links to helpful tutorials.
Maggie shared her technique for creating a pencil sketch from an image.
The next Challenge will be;
#45 A PINK FLOYD ALBUM COVER
Create vinyl album cover art for an imaginary or real Pink Floyd Album.
It must be square format (or a double-width gatefold). It may be untitled or include text such as title and band name.
You may say “…but I am not familiar with Pink Floyd or their music.” It was often the case that the album art was produced by their agency Hipgnosis before the music, so this is not a barrier. However research of their past covers and artistic intent will be helpful.
Hint: think imaginative, artistic, inscrutable, playful, absurd, psychedelic ... ie anything goes!
Pink Floyd Homework.
A 90 min documentary Squaring The Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis is highly entertaining and informative. It tells the story of the madness surrounding an album art design studio who created some of the most iconic album covers of all time. It is available on Netflix and many other platforms. Here is the trailer.
Also invaluable is Best Pink Floyd Album Covers: 20 Artworks Ranked and Reviewed.
Of course the music itself is widely available and Dark Side of the Moon would be the starting point for many.
Their spectacular live concert in Pompeii in 2016 (released in 2017) was a highlight for me when I saw it in the cinema. There are many excerpts online but the entire concert on video is elusive except on Now TV or on DVD. Here is the trailer. The audio is widely available.
If you have a big birthday coming up Chris S is very tempted by The Hypergallery in Henley on Thames which specialises in signed and authenticated album art prints. But he admits that the prices are very steep.
Filenaming. If you decided to name your Album, use the normal filename conventions:
#45 ALBUM NAME by Your Name.jpg or if you decide not to name your album, #45 by Your Name.jpg
More details in the FAQ.
If you do include the album and/or band name on the cover, note the creative use of fonts and have a play!
NB The artwork was often rather random so you won’t need to speak about, or justify your album art at the next meeting but there will be an opportunity for everyone to pick out the most ‘Floydian’ submissions.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be on Thursday 2nd May in the Drake Hall, Amersham Community Centre. Our usual venue.
BACK OF BEYOND DIARIES
Graphics Processor Compatibility in Adobe RAW; Peter W informed me of an error message Camera Raw requires GPU acceleration to edit photos. After going to Camera Raw Preferences>Performance>Use Graphic Processor he had the message Camera Raw graphics acceleration is not supported by your system. By contrast Photoshop>Help>GPU Compatibity said that his integrated graphics was compatible.
Peter found the answer here: Adobe Camera Raw graphics processor (GPU) FAQ and troubleshooting and was able so solve it by deleting the file TempDisableGPU2 as described.
Photoshop Generative Fill. We are all concerned by the likely takeover of our creativity by AI but on the other hand the new automated subject selection, Generative Fill and Expand in Photoshop are impressive tools to help us. The image fills take into account the lighting and focus of the original. An inspirational (but scary) video tutorial is here: https://phlearn.com/tutorial/ai-generative-fill/
Cheers, Steve